“That’s crazy! Amy didn’t do anything!”
“She thinks she failed Cara as a mother. We never came down hard on her because she was so delicate and we were grieving my dad in our own ways. Cara always craved the need to be liked and accepted, hence, ganging up with Alex Moore and her crew.”
“Well, I disagree and will tell her that.”
“I’m a little worried she’ll show up this weekend.” He says with concern in his voice.
“She wouldn’t.”
“Ari, she calls and texts me every day. The only response I give her is ‘I’m not ready to talk’.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We have been busy and she’s not really a subject I thought you’d want to talk about. The level of damage she caused is still too fresh in my mind to be civil.”
“You know you can talk to me about anything right?”
He doesn’t answer but nods slightly and grabs my hand. We walk back to the house quietly, each lost in thought. I’m not sure I will ever forgive Cara Matthews. But one thing’s for sure, Reed absolutely has to.
Chapter 25
Reed
“When’s that woman of yours gonna wise up and dump your ass for a real man?” Bobbie says loud enough for Ari to hear him. She shakes her head smiling and turns back to the woman she’s sitting with.
“Watch it, Bobbie. She’s one hundred percent mine.”
“Don’t see a ring on her finger.” He goads me.
I’m about to reply when there’s a screeching from the back porch, and Sissy and Shani run towards Ari like she is their long lost sister. They embrace and squeal loudly. Lamar and Dwayne come out behind them carrying armloads of shit.
“Fuck, seeing that she is already in with the wives, that ring won’t be far behind.” Bobbie says and I wink, grinning.
I wave to the guys and see several more teammates walk out. Ari wasn’t kidding about her annual Fourth of July party being a big deal. Sophie, Katy, my mom, and her have been cooking and getting ready for days. Luke came over this morning and helped me put up three tents on the beach. He unloaded games and set them up for adults and kids. We already decided we were going to kick ass in corn hole today. Each person that has come in has brought some sort of food and every surface in my kitchen is covered.
Katy invited her book club and they have stayed mostly under the porch. Luke and I both have tried to avoid them since they have wondering hands. One lady felt up my front while commenting on my muscles while another pinched my ass. Ari saw the whole thing and laughed at my horrified expression.
Several of the bank employees are here, and unfortunately, one of them is the receptionist. She’s tried to get my attention in different ways but I am dodging her too. When she took off her cover up and exposed her bright pink thong bikini there were gasps from most of the women. Sophie actually went to talk to her and I heard her say something about a family party and kids present. The woman didn’t cover up but did lie down so her ass wasn’t exposed.
All together with our friend’s kids there were about ten children building sand castles and squirting water guns. A few of the soccer kids are here including Miles. I felt a ping of guilt thinking about taking Davis to my place so much during the fall. I know he’ll miss his best friend, but hopefully he’ll enjoy the other kids he meets.
I watch Ari from a distance and my heart explodes with pride. She is not only beautiful, but also has an aura that people flock to. Her excitement over this party was infectious. Even I wanted to jump out of bed this morning, and get today started. Which is rare because I never want to get out of a bed with Ari in it.
She sees me staring and gives me her million-dollar smile. I do a chin lift to beckon her over and she rolls her eyes. It takes her a few minutes to get to me but I admire her body the whole time. She chose a blue and white striped bikini today with a red sarong draped around her waist. As soon as she came outside with it on this morning, I made plans for getting it off tonight.
“Hey,” she stands in front of me and lays her hands on my chest.
I don’t say anything but pull her to me and press my lips against hers. I lick, nip, and suck on her mouth never letting my tongue go in but assault just her lips. Her nails scratch lightly on my skin, which turns me on even more. Catcalls and shouts erupt around us, and I peck her once more quickly then lift my eyes to hers.
“What was that for?” she asks breathlessly.
“I wanted every fucker here to know you are mine.”
“Really, Reed? Did you just basically piss on me?”
“Not really my thing, but I’ll do it for you.” I shrug.
“You are incredulous. These are our friends and family.”
“Well, maybe that’s true, but I wanted a kiss.”
“Maybe I should be the one worried. What about the group of seventy year olds up on the porch that can’t keep their hands to themselves?” She giggles.
It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “We’re gonna have a talk with Katy tomorrow. Those ladies are ruthless.”
“Daddy, Daddy! Come here! Mister Bobbie is going to teach us to play football and said you had to come!” Davis’s excited voice is the only reason I step away from Ari.
“Matthews man! Get over here and teach your son how this works.” Lamar shouts.
I run over and grab a pee-wee ball I bought specifically for today. We split up into teams and start a game, trying to teach the younger kids, including the girls how to throw, catch, and sprint. My mom comes out with her camera and stands next to Ari taking pictures.
Jack shows up mid-afternoon carrying a huge box of sand toys. Ari greets him with a hug and kiss on the cheek. I watch his eyes rake over her body. When I get to him, I smack him upside the head.
“I saw that you dipshit.”
He rubs the back of his head and smiles, not apologizing. He knows most of my teammates so he goes down to the water to hang out.
Luke motions for me to join him in a game of corn hole with Sophie and Ari. Surprisingly the girls are very good. Unfortunately, each time they make a board they jump up and down and cheer. We’re getting our asses handed to us and a crowd has formed around watching and yelling for their side of choice. Seeing that they are playing much better, the cheering is increasing and I can’t take it anymore. I call a minute and walk straight to Ari. Without saying a word, I untie her sarong from her waist and retie it around her chest.
Her eyes grow large and she scowls at me. “I CANNOT believe you just did that!” she spews.
“Believe it, babe, you were putting on a show and distracting me. Now, you’re completely covered.” I kiss her quickly on the nose and go back to Luke. There are hisses in the crowd and I hear a few whistles as well. Jack reaches over to fist pump me. Then the clapping starts. Someone yells ‘you go girl’ as Luke cusses beside me.
My eyes bulge out of my head when I turn around. Ari and Sophie have removed their cover-ups completely and are standing with their hands on their hips smiling.
“You instigated that shit, now deal with it. I’ll never live it down if I lose to those two. Pull it together and concentrate.” Luke says beside me.
I try, I really do, but in the end, I lose all focus and we end up tying. Ari walks down to the water with Davis and I follow. He runs around in the small waves.
“You do know I will find a way to get you back for that.” I whisper when I catch up to them.
“For what exactly, wearing my bathing suit on the beach?”
“Don’t get smart, you know exactly what you were doing.”
“Nope, I couldn’t let you think you had control back there. You could have easily asked me to tie my wrap—or something else besides acting like a complete caveman.”
Her defiance is sexy and my dick strains against the inside of my shorts. I position her in front of me and poke my hips into her ass so she can feel the hardness. “Angel, are you telling me I’m not in control? That if I slip my fingers into you, you wouldn
’t be dripping wet? Or if I got you alone for five minutes, you wouldn’t be screaming my name?” I murmur in her ear and breathe in the smell of her skin, “Because if you are, I’ll take you up on that challenge, right here.”
Her breath hitches and nipples start to poke through her top.
“Ari, I have no shame in picking you up and taking you in that house right now straight to the bedroom. I’ll push my dick so deep inside you that you will feel me tomorrow. So tell me, who’s in control.”
“Reed, stop, people are watching us.” She tries to step away, but I hold her firmly.
“Are you going to pull a stunt like that again, Ari? You seem to need reminding, this body is mine. Every bit of you is mine. Just nod your head that you agree.”
It takes a few seconds but she does and leans back into me. If she is half as turned on as I am right now, she’s miserable too. “I seem to have a huge problem in my pants now. I’m going to take Davis further into the water and see if I can get rid of it. Give me a kiss.”
“What’s with all the PDA today?” she teases. “Is this part of your ‘operation’?”
“Depends, do you feel special, do you feel loved?”
“I do.”
“Then the answer is yes, it’s part of the plan.” I lift Davis and stroll painfully into the water hoping the cold water will take care of my raging dick.
Little fingers run down my arm and I crack one eye open to see a very happy little boy staring at me.
“Hey, little guy, whatcha doing?” I ask quietly because Ari is still asleep beside me.
“Daddy, I’m hungry.”
I silently groan because I’m exhausted. I motion to him to head to the kitchen and then climb out of bed.
Davis is in his chair waiting on me so I pour him some cereal and milk. I try to remember who all stayed here last night while starting the coffee. The blinds are closed, so someone must be asleep on the sofa. Jack and Sophie are curled around each other on the sofa bed, and thankfully, they are dressed. Luke is in Davis’s room so it must be Bobbie on the sofa.
I pull a slit in the blinds to see the amount of damage to clean and surprisingly it looks decent. “Ugh, can you shut that? My head is pounding.” Bobbie mumbles.
“Sorry, man, just surveying the damage. But it’s not bad.”
“What a freaking party.”
“Tell me about it. Good thing it only happens once a year.”
Last night Luke and I grilled about a hundred hamburgers and hot dogs. Once everyone ate, most of Ari’s work friends, Katy and her friends, and the soccer families went home. We put the remaining kids in the big room to watch a movie. We promised anyone of them still awake when the fireworks started could come back outside. The crowd was much smaller than earlier in the day, but we still had about twenty people here. The guys kept on with corn hole and golf ladder but the ladies sat back and talked. I was surprised that most of the teammates that came rented hotel rooms across the street. Jack brought out the bourbon and beer. Ari, in turn, started making martinis and we let loose. Fortunately for us, none of the kids were awake by the time the fireworks went off.
We turned on the music and the girls danced until one in the morning. Ari changed the music genres several times among rock, pop, and country. When Luke Bryan came across the speakers all the girls went wild and pulled the guys up to dance along too. Finally, a slow song started and I stopped anyone from changing it and took my girl in my arms. I swayed us to the music, holding her tight. A few others joined in but in my mind, it was just the two of us. When the song ended, I saw my mom wiping her cheeks out of the corner of my eye.
Everyone finally left and those staying at my house had to figure out their own sleeping arrangements. I locked up then went to find Ari. I must have taken too long because she was passed out in the bed with only one of my t-shirts on. I stripped down and crawled in beside her then fell asleep.
My sister never showed up but she blew up my phone all day with messages ranging from angry to sad. Mostly asking how I could be so cruel as to have a family party without all of my family.
The bedroom door opens and my mom walks out looking a lot more alive than I feel.
“You look tired.”
“I am, the last few shots got to me.”
“Well, go back to bed. I’ve got Davis and I’ll take him to the park or the beach in a while.”
“You sure? The house is kind of littered with bodies in every room.”
“We’ll watch cartoons in my room once he’s done with breakfast.”
“Thank you God.” Bobbie groans.
“Thanks. See you in a bit.” I get some water and sneak quietly back into my room. Ari is sprawled out over the middle of the bed and the tee shirt has bunched around her waist showing her complete ass. If we didn’t have a houseful of people, I would take advantage of this situation. Instead, I crawl in beside her and drag her limp body across my chest. Her warm breaths heat my skin and I run my fingertips along her side.
I silently thank God for this second chance and vow to never let my family down again.
Chapter 26
Reed
This cannot be good news, which really fucking sucks because we’ve had an awesome weekend. But if Trey is at my door at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon, something is wrong. He looks at me apologetically when I let him in.
Jack stayed the weekend again and when he sees Trey, his shoulders tense. Ari is in the shower and Davis is asleep so I motion to the back patio. He opens a folder and pours the contents on the table. Pictures fall out and I recognize some of the people in them from college.
“You know any of these people?” Trey asks.
Both Jack and I point out a few faces and I freeze when I realize Alex Moore is in a lot of them. Ari walks out and wraps her arms around my waist.
“Hey Trey, what are y’all looking at?” Her face changes and she grips me tighter. “Why do you have pictures of Sarah Summers?” She points to a blonde in several pictures.
“You know her?” he asks.
“Yes.” She says so quietly we barely hear her.
“Baby, how do you know her?” I urge.
“She works with me at the bank. She’s the one Luke was seeing for a few weeks.”
“I know her too, man. I hooked up with her several times our senior year.” Jack says.
Trey looks at all of us and shakes his head a bit, indicating there’s more to the story.
“Baby, go call Luke and see if he can come over. He needs to hear this.”
She nods and goes inside. I get each of us a beer and sit down looking through the rest of the pictures.
Luke arrives in thirty minutes. Davis woke up so Ari set him up with a movie then joins us again.
Trey starts to explain. “I’ve been digging through old college pictures trying to find the common denominator. We found out about Alex and Cara, but there were still so many unanswered questions. Like why Ari was called into the Dean’s office and how her scholarship could have been threatened. Then there was how this could happen the same day Ari found out she was pregnant. Nothing here is a coincidence. The commonality is Alex Moore. Reed, I need to know all you know about her.”
“She is my sister’s friend. She and her friends followed me around in high school but she was a pain in the ass. She came to FSU my sophomore year and started a fan club for me. I still stayed away, but was polite because of the relationship with my sister. Honestly until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t seen her much since college.”
“Any reason she would be in your college apartment? Look at the pictures in the back of the stack.”
I shuffle through and see a few of her and Cara in my place and I remember the night Cara planned the party. “Yeah, the night Ari and I broke up; my sister had planned a party without telling me. I kicked them out.”
“Well, you may not have seen her, but she has seen you. Records show she moved to Jacksonville after college. On paper, she works for her father, but I’m no
t sure exactly what her position is. Somehow she has engrained herself into your life. She has been at almost every function you’ve attended since being drafted. This is more than a simple adoration. We may be bordering on obsession. I’ve looked into her and she has your schedule down pat. She volunteers with the same charities, she works with the team on citywide events, and the list goes on and on. When you came up here in May and rented this place, she went nuts that you had disappeared from your normal routine. She went to a buddy of mine in the business and asked him to find you. He was able to blow her off for a while because he thought she was a crazy fan, but she finally went to him with some of these pictures and said y’all were tight and she was worried about your state of mind since the injury. He started looking into you. His trail led him to me and I knew the story about Ari and Davis by then. I explained you were very much alright and had a need for privacy. He gave her money back and told her you were fine then she went crazy. Threatening to have his license revoked and put him out of business.
“He got curious and put a trace on her cell. She started calling your sister again and buddying up to her. Alex was at the party the night your sister had her accident.”
My entire body goes tight. “Did she have something to do with it?”
“We don’t know. Doesn’t seem like it from the accident report. But according to my friends call logs, about two weeks after I turned over the information to you on Davis, Sarah Summers made a call to Alex. They talked for five minutes. Several times since then, they’ve had conversations. Now knowing that Ari works with her, I can put together a scenario. I think somehow Sarah figured out who Ari was and what Alex did in college, and she called her out on it and that’s how Alex knew where you were.
“She has several credit card charges for the hotel across the street. Alex has been watching you. Seeing you get close to the one woman she knows you loved. Then she arranged for her and Cara to surprise you that weekend hoping to scare Ari away. What she didn’t know is your feelings for Ari. I hate to tell you buddy, but she was here this weekend too. I don’t know how she hid, but she was registered at the hotel since Thursday night. I watched her drive out about an hour ago and came straight here.”
Reed's Reckoning Page 21
